Wednesday, 11 January 2017

NSW average mortgage size passes $600,000

Australian Finance Group (AFG) released its index for the final quarter of 2016, reporting more than $15 billion in mortgage lodgement volume.

The index, which is not seasonally adjusted, rose by 9.9 per cent over the year to December.

Nationally, the average mortgage size of $488,875 was up from $475,083 from the prior year.

"Tale of two seaboards"

Over the year there was strong growth in lodgement volumes in both New South Wales (up 10 per cent) and Queensland (18 per cent), but the real driver of growth was Victoria with a substantial 23 per cent rise.

Offsetting this, investors have backed off from Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

In the December quarter the average mortgage size scaled fresh heights in each of the three most populous states.

Investor rebound

Finally, the share of AFG's market relating to investors ticked back up to 34 per cent.

The wrap

While activity in South Australia was flat, the weakness of the WA market in 2016 was evident, with the recent introduction of a new first home owners grant in the state designed to combat this.

Loan to value ratios across the year were fairly consistent at around 69 per cent, about 0.7 per cent lower than in 2015.

Over the year non-major lenders have been pinching market share away from the main players, a trend that AFG expects to continue into the new year as consumers increasingly recognise the potential benefits of using a broker.